They walked around the Sea-suppressing Tower and looked into the distance. The winter scenery was covered in a layer of pale yellow. After coming down from Jin Ao Mountain, they decided to pay their respects to Tang Yicen's tomb. Tang Yicen was a native of Guangxi. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, he came to Chongming Island as a county magistrate, just as the Japanese pirates were rampant.
One day, the Japanese invaded and attacked the city from the northeast gate. The county wall was destroyed. The magistrate, Tang Yicen, led the army and the people to bravely kill the enemy. In the street fighting, he suffered several serious injuries. After an intense bloody battle, he finally repelled the Japanese pirates.
The next day, Tang Yicen died due to his injuries. In recognition of his achievements, Emperor Jiajing granted Tang Yicen the title of Guanglu Temple Cheng and built a tomb and temple in the southwest of Pingyangsha Old City. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, due to the collapse of the old tomb, the magistrate re-buried him in Panlong Town of Wujiasha.
They searched all the way to the northeast. After several inquiries, they finally found an ancient forest under the guidance of passers-by. They saw a dilapidated temple and an ancient tomb beside the temple. There were no tombstones or inscriptions. Presumably, this was Tang Yicen's tomb.
They walked around the tomb and bowed three times before the altar. Yao Shunru wrote with his finger on the table covered in dust," The loyal soul returns to the osmanthus, and the fierce bones are buried in the sand. The temple was broken and no one asked, and the people who mourned were ashamed.
They turned around and returned to the east gate, heading straight for the north gate. Along the way, they would occasionally encounter wax people carrying hunting rifles and carrying strings of egrets, wild ducks, and geese.
The north gate of Chongming County was originally called Gongchen Gate, but later it was changed to Wuding Gate. The southern goods store was twenty to thirty feet away from the north gate wall. From afar, one could see the golden signboard of "Tianxi Funan Item Number".
The older brother, Li Shaorong, saw his younger brother coming with a classmate and quickly walked out of the counter to welcome him. He looked like his father. He had thin eyebrows and eyes on his long, fair face. One of his front teeth was exposed, and he was half a head taller than Li Shaohua.
After Li Shaohua finished his introduction, everyone nodded and saluted one by one. The elder brother welcomed the guests into the inner room. This was a southern store with a front shop and back shop. The building faced east, and the front shop was about 30 square meters. The counters and shelves were neatly arranged, and the pots and jars were all over the ground.
Entering the second entrance, the right side was the account, the left side was the warehouse, and the two sides of the courtyard were the guest rooms. After walking past the courtyard, there was a large living room. On the front side of the room, there was a tribute table for the God of Fortune, an incense burner, and a blue flower porcelain bottle. Below it was a square table and an armchair. There were two armchairs and coffee tables in each compartment. On both sides of the living room were bedrooms.
Everyone sat down. A maid, Aunt Liu, offered fragrant tea. Li Shaorong ordered Aunt Liu to clean up the two guest rooms and inform the cook to cook. Li Shaohua was eager to visit the entire courtyard. As soon as he sat down on the stool, he got up and asked his brother to take them inside.
They walked into the third entrance. The layout was similar to the second entrance, but the decoration was not as exquisite. It was used as a kitchen, storeroom, dining room, and servant's bedroom. The fourth entrance was a large workshop. On both sides were warehouses, large stoves, large pots, large steamers, and tools for steaming wine. On the ground were some jars and jars used to hold wine and sauce vinegar.
The fifth entrance was an open-air sauce garden with dozens of large sauces lined up. Some of the sauces were covered with pointed bamboo strips, while others were open. There were many wine jars stacked in the corners. They walked closer to take a look and saw that the jar was filled with sauce-colored bean paste, emitting a unique sauce fragrance and stench.
They casually walked and looked around in the array of sauce jars. Suddenly, they found rotting frogs, geckos, centipedes, and other insects in the open sauce jars. Everyone was very surprised when they saw this and began to whisper to each other. Yao Shunru shook his head and signaled for everyone to be quiet.
They continued to walk forward and saw rotting rats and cats again. Tian Meixiu saw a black ringed snake in a vat and could not help but scream," Snakes!
Li Shaohua saw all of this. He said to his brother seriously,"This sauce garden needs to be cleaned up immediately. It's too unsanitary.”
The elder brother said disapprovingly," This is the case in the sauce garden. It can't be avoided. These things will only increase the freshness. It's not a big deal. In any case, it has to be disinfected at high temperature in the end."”Everyone looked at each other.
"I don't believe that everyone is like this. Even if everyone is like this, we can't be like this. We must pay attention to hygiene, and we must manage our characteristics and reputation.”Li Shaohua said indignantly.
Aunt Liu came to the sauce garden to treat them to a meal. When they returned to the dining room, they saw that the wine and dishes on the eight immortals table were all served. Li Shaorong invited everyone to sit casually. Since he sat on the leader's seat, they didn't stand on ceremony and chose their own seats.
Sitting at the same table was a 40-year-old accountant surnamed Chen and a shop assistant. Aunt Liu and the chef were not at the table. The other employees had been sent home for the New Year, so the large square table was filled.
Li Shaorong filled everyone's cup with wine and raised his glass.""Welcome to my shop, students. I feel extremely honored.”
Everyone stood up and clinked their glasses, then drank it all in one gulp. Then he filled a second glass of wine and said,"Everyone, take your time to drink. Please help yourself. There are no dishes, but there is plenty of wine.”Everyone thanked him again.
The main course of Chinese food was braised wild duck, which was very delicious. Yao Shunru said,"Along the way, I encountered many hunters carrying javelins, selling wild ducks, egrets, and big gray geese. I also saw a red-crowned crane.”
"Now is the time when the migrating birds gather. Go to Dongtan and take a look. The reeds are everywhere. A group of wild ducks fly up and cover the sky. Wild ducks are a seasonal delicacy now.”Li Shaorong smiled.
The accountant, Mr. Chen, wore glasses and said with a smile,"If you want to bring a few wild ducks back, it's the right time. However, you must be careful not to buy those dead ducks that have been poisoned.”
"Oh, then what's going on? Aren't they all shooting with guns?”Shi Guangyao asked in surprise.
"Wild ducks are very intelligent animals. It's very difficult to hunt them during the day. Before you get close, they will be scared away by the slightest sound. The local professionals mixed the rat poison in the valley and scattered it on the reed beach where wild ducks often appeared. If the wild ducks ate it, they would definitely die. The first day, they would put food in the afternoon, and the next morning, they would go to clean up the wild ducks that had been poisoned. Every time, they would harvest a lot.”Mr. Chen smiled.
"Wouldn't that person be poisoned if he ate it? Who would dare to eat a dead wild duck?" Yao Shunru asked.
"The amount of this medicine is very small. It's just the right medicine to knock out the duck. People won't feel it even if they eat a little. However, there have been cases of people dying from poisoning after eating poisonous wild ducks.”Mr. Chen said.
"Isn't it easy to distinguish? There are bullet holes and bloodstains in the gun, but there are no drugs. As long as you pay attention, you can tell.”Shi Guangyao said.
"These professionals are very cunning. Later, when they saw that people did not dare to buy the dead ducks, they thought of a way. They picked up the ducks and spread them on the ground. Then, they fired a few shots at the dead ducks. This way, there would be bullet holes in the dead ducks.”Li Shaorong smiled.
"These people are too cunning. How can we tell?”Yao Shunru asked.
"As long as you look carefully, you can still tell. The most obvious thing is that a live duck will bleed a lot after being shot. Dead ducks have no or very little blood.”Mr. Chen said with a smile.
"There is no end to learning in this world. Today, I learned the knowledge of buying wild ducks.”Everyone laughed.
After Mr. Chen drank the wine and heard the praises of these young people, he said proudly,"Do you know how these wild ducks are shot? The hunter's musket is one of them, but the daily harvest of using muskets to shoot wild ducks is very limited.”
Seeing that everyone was listening with relish, he took a sip of wine and continued,"This handgun is as thick as a blue flower bowl, eight or nine feet long, and weighs a few hundred pounds. It can hold a few liters of iron balls at a time. They placed the blunderbuss at the foot of the boat and pushed them slowly in the water, so they were called blunderbuss.
This wild duck was very intelligent. You couldn't get close to it during the day. Hunting wild ducks was carried out in the dark of the night. These wild ducks were also very vigilant when they slept at night. When a group of wild ducks landed on a tidal flat to rest at night, they would send out special watchmen to keep watch at night. As long as they heard the call of the watchmen, everyone would fly away.
However, humans were more cunning than wild ducks. In the middle of the night, they quietly pushed their guns close to the beach where wild ducks gathered. They lit a match and immediately extinguished it. As long as the fire flashed, the ducks would cry out. The wild ducks would rise up when they heard the cry. They flew into the air and saw that nothing unexpected had happened, so they landed back in their original place and besieged the ducks who did not fulfill their duties.
After the ducks quieted down and fell asleep, the hunter lit another match and immediately extinguished it. The ducks cried again, and the ducks flew away when they heard the cry, repeating the scene above.
When the third or fourth match was struck, the duck no longer dared to call the police. Perhaps it had fallen asleep because of its injuries. So the hunter quietly pushed the gun close to the beach. With this gun, at least a hundred wild ducks were killed. Every winter, countless wild ducks were killed in this way!”
When everyone heard this, they all sighed at the cunning and cruelty of humans. They felt sorry for these poor wild ducks, especially for those dutiful ducks.
"We're going to Fort Town to see the scenery of Dongtan, the migrating birds, and the sunrise in the East Sea." May I ask where you want to go and when is the most suitable time?”
"The best time to watch the sunrise is in the early morning. A migrating bird that had rested for a night, soaring against the morning glow, the scenery was really amazing.
If you really want to see the sunrise, come with me today. There will be a boat leaving at two o'clock in the afternoon. My home is in Chaoyang Town.
Climbing the river bank to the east of my house, you can watch the sunrise. Further east, there are reed marshes everywhere. You can sleep at my house tonight. I'll accompany you to watch the sunrise early tomorrow morning.”Mr. Chen smiled and said,
Everyone was very happy to hear that. They decided to go to Bajiao with Mr. Chen in the afternoon. The next morning, after watching the sunrise in the East China Sea and the hundred birds in the morning, they would return to the town and take a speedboat back to Shiliupu. If they met a duck seller on the way, they would buy a few wild ducks that had just been hunted and bring them home for the New Year.
After lunch, they rested for a while before following Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen had gone home for the New Year and had agreed with his boss that he would only come back to work after the 18th of the first month of the new year.
Mr. Chen was of medium build, with a square face full of wrinkles. He wore a blue cotton jacket and an old navy blue woolen hat. He was very agile. He had bought a lot of New Year's goods, many big and small bags. He had originally planned to ask the shop assistant to send him to the boat. Now, he didn't need to. His classmates were laughing and fighting to carry a bag for him.
Li Shaorong sent them to the door of the shop and jokingly said,"Old Chen, you've returned home in glory this year.”
He then said to Shaohua and his classmates," Shaohua, you must remember to be careful along the way. Don't go to the river branches or the reeds. Be careful not to get lost. Later, he would bring his classmates to the shop to play for a few days.”
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